Denny Hecker has admitted that he successfully bid on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a dirt bike at a May bankruptcy auction of his own belongings.

In a court document filed Monday, the former Twin Cities auto dealership mogul explains how he used a fictitious business name and a credit card belonging to a former employee to bid on the items online. After he won the bidding, Hecker arranged for a business associate, John Prosser, to pay $17,000 for the items and pick them up from the Fred W. Radde auction house in New Germany after the May 25 auction, according to the filing.

Hecker paid Prosser, the owner of Automotive Concepts, $8,500 and took possession of the 2006 Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle, but Prosser took it back on Labor Day after two other checks from Hecker bounced. Hecker never took possession of the dirt bike.

“(Hecker) intended to pay Prosser back out of a large Toyota settlement he believed he had coming,” according to the court document.

The filing by Hecker’s attorney is a response to a demand from the bankruptcy trustee, Randy Seaver, for information about the purchases. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Minneapolis.

Once the owner of one of the state’s largest auto dealership networks, Hecker filed for bankruptcy protection in 2009, owing $767 million. After allegations from Seaver that he was hiding assets from the bankruptcy estate, Hecker abandoned efforts to have his debts forgiven. In a deal with federal prosecutors, he pleaded guilty in September to bankruptcy fraud and conspiracy charges and faces up to 10 years in prison. He is expected to be sentenced in January.

Hecker, 58, has been jailed in Sherburne County since Oct. 18 because of his failure to answer questions about spending insurance money that was supposed to be turned over to the bankruptcy estate.

According to Monday’s filing by Hecker attorney Barbara May, Hecker used a fake business name, “Warehouse Merchandising,” and a credit card belonging to James Gustafson to bid on the items online. Gustafson, 49, of Maple Grove, was a long-time Hecker employee who pleaded guilty in September to two charges in connection with his former boss’s fraud schemes. He faces up to 10 months in prison.

The motorcycle, which sold at the auction for $15,900, and the dirt bike currently are for sale on a website run by New Hope-based Automotive Concepts, which Hecker once did business with. Hecker says in the court filing that the auctioneer was never able to give him the titles for the vehicles.

The trustee also had asked Hecker to turn over any items he purchased in June from Golf Galaxy using the insurance money.

But according to Monday’s filing, Hecker is having trouble sorting out exactly which of his collection of golf shirts and pants were purchased that day. ” … however, he will bag up a collection of miscellaneous golf shirts and pants and have those delivered to the trustee,” the document said.

MaryJo Webster can be reached at 651-228-5507.

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